Eighteen months after suing the state's Department of Juvenile Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois said Monday it has reached a tentative agreement to improve conditions for the nearly 800 youths incarcerated in six facilities across the state. Most in juvenile prisons are ages 13 to 21.

The pact, filed late last week in federal court, mandates a five-hour school day, smaller class sizes and mental health treatment plans. Each child would be allowed at least eight hours a day outside his or her cell to attend class, receive mental health services, exercise or perform a work assignment.

The department also agreed to end its practice of keeping children in solitary confinement for long periods and extending incarcerations beyond a release date because the state has nowhere to send them.

The ACLU sued the state in September 2012. Months later, a consent decree was reached allowing three court-appointed experts to investigate conditions and services within juvenile prisons. In a report last fall, the experts cited inadequate education and mental health services, excessive solitary confinement and other deficiencies.

Youths in Illinois juvenile prisons also suffered one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the nation, according to a federal survey released last summer. The court proposal calls for increased staffing and other measures to address those safety concerns.

The pact does not specify how the department would pay for the changes. Adam Schwartz, a senior legal counsel for the ACLU of Illinois, argues that hundreds of the incarcerated children are nonviolent and could safely be released with continued treatment and services.

The agreement also calls for new department policy and training to better protect incarcerated gay and lesbian youths from harassment and violence. It requires the ACLU and the court-appointed experts to continue monitoring conditions.

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement without further litigation and to be moving forward," said Alka Nayyar, a Department of Juvenile Justice spokeswoman.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly must sign off on the pact. If the judge approves the agreement, similar to one reached in the 1990s between the ACLU and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, it may serve as a tool for the department in state budget negotiations.

DCFS has pointed to court-mandated requirements in the past to try to stop proposed cuts.

Officials with the John Howard Association of Illinois, a prison watchdog group that long advocated for change, said they hope the pact and new department leadership will lead to reforms.

"I think this will be a year of great change, we hope for the better," said Jennifer Vollen-Katz, director of the juvenile justice project for the association.

More than 1 in 5 juveniles at a now-defunct Joliet youth prison reported being victims of sexual assault, one of the highest rates in the country, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle is temporarily reversing her signature initiative to shrink the Juvenile Detention Center because a federally-appointed administrator says there are too many kids being detained there to safely reduce its size.

SANFORD – Two 17-year-old Winter Springs High School football players accused of taking part in the gang rape of a teenage girl were back in juvenile court today. One tried to plead no contest but by the end of the hearing, that plan fell apart.